Pandemonium
by Davan
Summary: When something starts tormenting the city of Paris, some of Gotei's best operatives move into town to solve the case. HitsuHina. ShunNanao. Written for Alternate Universe Big Bang 15k challenge.
1. Chapter 1

Nanao Ise was waiting for her contact. She adjusted her grip on her umbrella with a grim sort of determination and stared through the rain. He was late and the chances of her getting out of this without getting wet were getting slim. She glanced at the clock hanging on the peeling wall and managed some sort of a smile for the ticket attendant who had been watching her for the last ten minutes. She had been traveling for fifteen hours. The least he could have done was show up on time.

She glanced at the road again. All right, he had a penchant for running late; she just hadn't realized that it would be this late or she would have left more things out of her suitcase. Pepper spray at the very least would have been more beneficial to her than any of the other odd things she carried on her. Which was why she had taken the train; anything that Shunsui Kyouraku deemed important enough for her to hop a train in the middle of the night required a lot of equipment. The airports that were left tended to get a little anxious about pepper spray.

"Nanao."

Nanao started slightly at the voice behind her and adjusted her grip on her umbrella for good measure. "You're late," she said as she turned to face him. Trust him to keep her waiting in the rain.

Shunsui Kyouraku tipped his straw hat in her direction. "Forgot my umbrella."

She glanced at the downpour and sighed. Right. He forgot his umbrella. "Bad weather for that."

She hooked her hand on the handle of her suitcase and lead him out of station.

"Been raining for the last week." He tipped his hat so he could glance in her direction. "Perhaps you should let me pull your bag."

She shot him an exasperated look. "I would rather not lose it."

He flashed her a smile. "That only happened once."

She shook her head. "I've got it."

"Hungry?"

"Yes," she agreed. She had never been fond of train food.

This way then," he motioned her after him.

Nanao sighed and trudged after him. After the travel she had just endured, this had better be a decent restaurant and not one of the side bars that he tended to hang out in.

It took them a good ten minutes of trudging through the rain and the weather to reach the restaurant that he had picked out for them and she was half frozen by the time they got there. She glanced over her shoulder before blowing on her hands and rubbing them together briskly. She had never really learned to like the rain.

Nanao glanced out the window that they were settled against and sighed. It had been beautiful here once. She wasn't old enough to remember what Paris had looked like before the Great War had destroyed most of it, but enough of its architecture remained that she could see what it had been once. She wrapped her hands around the cup of tea the server had brought them for a little more warmth. There was a fire in the grate next to them, but the wind had left her feeling brittle. The train she had ridden into town was still the most reliable form of transportation in and out of the city, but it had been a cold fifteen hour journey. Before that, it had been a harrowing, turbulent flight across the ocean on one of the few planes that were still flying. All together, she had been traveling for a week or so to get here and now that she was here, she wanted a hot shower and at least a few hours of sleep.

As she was a few hours away from either, she would settle for a hot meal. Real food would go a long way into making her feel human again.

"The rain should end in a few hours or so. I believe that we might even be in for some sunshine."

Nanao glanced over at Shunsui and quirked a brow in his direction. "You would know."

"So would you," he flashed a smile at her and Nanao sighed, glancing back at her cup. The bowl of soup that was settled in front allowed her to think about how she wanted to answer that

"Sunshine would be nice," she said instead. She wasn't prepared for anything more in depth than a simple conversation about the weather. Not after a fifteen hour train ride.

"How is your soup?"

"It's good," surprisingly so, considering the nature of the little hole in the wall cafe's he preferred to frequent. She was fairly certain that the tomatoes floating in her bowl were actual tomatoes and not the synthetic sort that you found laundering around in the few markets and chain stores that had managed to survive. She glanced at the kitchen, re-evaluating the little café. Maybe she would try something a little more daring than soup next time. She glanced at his sandwich and accompanying fries. He clearly had eaten here before.

"I thought that you might like it." She glanced up, startled and furrowed her brow in his direction. "I have to keep my little Nanao-chan, happy after all."

Nanao sighed. "What was important enough that I had to leave Momo in India?" They had been tracking a serial killer who had a predilection for knives and blood and she had not been comfortable leaving her.

Momo was good at her job, but she had the knack for dropping herself right into the middle of whatever it was they were looking for. She was equally good at keeping her hide intact however, she didn't always manage to come out of it whole and with her partner. With a Pre-Cog and a - Geographic Profiling Specialists, otherwise known as GPS's - working the case they had at least both had a chance at keeping their necks above water. Even so, there was a reason Momo worked on her own more often than not. She liked people and over all she did better in group situations where she could draw support from multiple sources, she just hadn't quite found someone she was comfortable patterning with for the sort of missions that they gave to stronger GPS's. One that she didn't have to worry about keeping intact anyway.

"I made sure she got good back up, Nanao." He quirked a brow up at her. "I was under the impression you were close to closing the case as it was."

"We were, which was why I hesitated to leave her." She took a bite of the salad that had accompanied her soup to give her a moment to collect her thoughts. Shunsui had the ability to direct the conversation where he wanted it when she was awake, she needed to focus. "But that didn't answer my question."

"I would have thought that you would be more interested in who I sent out to assist Momo." He popped a fry in his mouth. "She is turning into your protégé, after all."

Nanao narrowed her eyes at him. "Someone who knows how to duck, I would presume."

"You were the one responsible for his field training." Another smile, this one had her averting her eyes to the ridiculous hat that he seemed to enjoy wearing for no other reason than she hated it. Still, she had only worked with a handful of Gotei operatives when they were being trained. She didn't have the patience for babysitting and most trainees needed their hands held while they learned how to do their jobs. "You sent Toushirou to India?"

"He _has_ mastered the art of ducking." Shunsui settled back in his chair and tipped his hat at her.

"As Rangiku hasn't managed to scare him out of the buisness yet, they should manage not to get each other killed."

Nanao stared at him, frowning. It could… theoretically work. "If she doesn't get him killed." He was looking at Momo as a partner for Toushirou? The last time those two had worked together;

Momo had managed to give him food poisoning and gutted herself. The time before that that they had been kidnapped by what resembled trolls and she still hadn't gotten the details from Momo about how they had gotten away from the trolls. She stabbed her fork into her lettuce.

"That still doesn't tell me why you asked me to come." What had been important enough that he had dragged her hallway across the country? "If this is one of your matchmaking schemes," she let the threat hang. Sometimes with Shunsui it was better to let him come up with the consequences.

He reached for his tea. "There is something in Paris."

"Kyouraku," She pointed her fork in his direction. "There is always something in Paris."

It was the reason Gotei kept trying to get some sort of base of operations in this city. The local government was suspicious of anyone who claimed to be able to remove the creatures that continually plagued them. Paris - as well as a few parts of Japan, Germany, and the United States - was considered a hot spot. Most had been abandoned decades ago, but some of them, like Paris, still remained.

"Ah," he agreed. "But this is something that hasn't shown up in any of the other hot spots." He leaned forward, resting his cheek on the back of his hand. "And it has successfully eluded detection for months."

Nanao pursed her lips, glancing back the window to mull that over. Hot spots had been created by the mixture of biological and nuclear warfare that had ravaged the world during the Great War. Specifically, hot spots had sprung up when scientiests had originally begun finding more people with mutated genes than the average in specific areas. Now, they were three generations past the war and those families had had children and their children were having children. Instead of fading away, as the scientists and other experts had declared they would, families who had been changed had grown stronger, began developing their skills further, and slowly infiltrated society. It had worked at first, but then one or two had not quite fit into the box that society and their parents had set them in and things had exploded, violently.

It had been the public outrage at the continual existence of the gene in the general population that forced the survivors to find a way to survive behind the scenes. Gotei had been put together somewhere in the middle of all the chaos and with all the odds against it, it was slowly building something that was doing more good than harm. At first they had only been concerned with finding those who were slipping through the government's nets and either helping them settle into society or hiding them away from sight. That mission had been changing for the last fifty years or so and their over all scope of operations had expanded. Now they worked to help find people who needed their help and hunting the people with the gene who had gone insane. There were other things slowly creeping out of the shadows as well. Humans were not the only things that had been changed. Shunsui, she knew, hunted those things. So did she and several other members of Gotei. Those whose talents were more… suited to such things.

"How are you tracking it then?" She tilted her head in his direction. "Wouldn't you rather have a GPS here?"

"Toushirou and Momo will join us once they have removed the serial killer out of India." He motioned towards the table. "Hopefully they will finish their work in the next week or so and be here by the end of the month."

Nanao grimanced a little. Momo hated flying, taking that little plane across the ocean was going to make her green and irritable by the time they got here. That would not help her focus on finding whatever it was they were hunting.

"Do you have any leads?"

Shunsui shook his head, leaning back. "A few things here and there."

Nanao sipped on her tea and managed not to grimace at the aftertaste. It was bitter. "What consists of here and there?"

"Anomalies, for the most part, things that don't quite add up."

Nanao nodded. Shunsui never picked the easy cases; mostly he relied on his gut and other mysterious methods that she hadn't quite put her finger on yet, to sniff out the things that most everyone else missed. He was good at it and she was inclined to believe him. "So it hides well."

"Very well," he agreed. "Well enough that it has avoided detection for years, if not longer than that."

"Any disappearances? Unexplained natural disasters?"

Shunsui flashed a smile. "Nothing that couldn't be explained, but I haven't dug through all the potential paperwork yet."

"Left that for me did you?" She was good at paperwork and the paper trails that they contained. It didn't mean however, that she was going to volunteer to do all of it.

Shunsui smiled at her. "You do enjoy the paperwork," he tapped his fingers against the table. "Although, I have been putting notes together. I wouldn't make you do all the work."

"Just most of it," she eyed her tea. She was not drinking that. Perhaps she could convince Shunsui to stop somewhere that sold something resembling actual tea so she could pick something up for the hotel. If she was going to be going through his notes, she was going to need all the caffeine she could get her hands on.

As it was, she was not drinking any more tea in the city if this was the general conclusion on what tea tasted like in Paris.

"There are other things we could do," he tipped his hat back and waggled his eyebrows at her.

She sighed, swallowing the blush that wanted to creep up her chest. "No," she stabbed a tomato on her plate and he sighed dramatically.

"You wound me."

"I'm sure," she agreed, staring at him. She pushed to her feet. "Although, if you have time to think about that, you have to have finished eating, let's go." She wanted a shower.

"Of course, of course."

Get some rest while she could.

"Have you considered the fact that the reason it has avoided detection is because it does not exist?" Shunsui glanced up from his book, fingers reaching up to tilt his hat back while he blinked at her. She gritted her teeth.

Shunsui smiled in her direction, "Preposterous."

Nanao slammed the book she was reading closed and leaned back in her seat, arms crossing defensively. "There is no evidence. Nothing. Notta. Zip." There was so much nothing in fact, she was inclined to believe that there had to be _something_. Towns were not this clean, not normal every day towns and certainly not hot spots.

"There was that mysterious death down the lane." He reminded her, lips twitching. It had almost looked like a lead. She had been grumpy about that dead end too.

"The body spontaneously combusted from what was most likely some sort of fire sprite. Or perhaps as the police think he doused himself in kerosene and then smoked a cigarette. A suicidal wish if I have ever heard one."

"The man downstairs disappeared from his room." Shunsui pointed out. "That was suspicious."

"And then he _suspiciously_ returned a few hours later smelling of gin and cheap perfume." She quirked an eyebrow at him; fingers tapping against the spine of the book in front of her. They had been working on this case for a month and there had been nothing. No sign of anyone being possessed, no sign of someone losing their mind. There was just nothing.

Shunsui sighed and reached across the table catching her hand. She tugged and his eyes crinkled at her in amusement. Patient amusement. She hated that too.

"Now, now Nanao-chan. The creature is stealthy, crafty, and perhaps a little insane, to avoid being caught for so long. It is not a reflection upon your detective skills that it has avoided you for the last month."

Nanao reached over with her other hand and firmly tapped him on the wrist. "Or perhaps, it simply does not exist." She was fairly certain he wasn't losing his mind. It wasn't his style to bring people in to hunt a phantom anything so he had to have something. They didn't hunt rumors. They worked with facts which meant that she could be fairly certain that he hadn't had any sort of psychotic break in the last six months. So he wasn't insane. He had just set them on a case where they were hunting nothing. There had to be something out there, somewhere. As it was, they were long overdue for their discussion about what exactly had happened to make him think something, that didn't seem to exist, actually existed.

Then again, she might have entirely to much faith in him.

"It is out there Nanao."

She frowned back at him. "What evidence are you basing that one?" She tapped the papers in front of her. "Because I can't find it, not in the papers, not among the people, and certainly not in that cheap bar you dragged me to for 'observational' purposes."

His fingers squeezed hers before he let go and leaned back in his chair, tipping his hat forward to cover his eyes. "It's not going to be easy to find."

"I have discerned that," she waved her hand back over the table full of materials that they had gathered over the last couple of weeks. "Since we have been combing through every recorded piece of information this city has ever created. There hasn't so much as been a blip." She closed her eyes and started working through their options. Patterns were not normally this difficult to unearth. Murderers, psychopaths, they all left something of themselves behind. Sometimes, she could take that something and see the future patters. Now and again she saw more than that.

On the other hand, if Momo was here she could have taken something with a strong tie to whatever they were hunting and use it to track the thing. At the very least, she could have told them if the man with the gin and perfume had actually been in any sort of danger.

"I have seen it."

Nanao opened her eyes. "You saw it?"

"Yes."

She reached up and took her glasses off so that she could pinch the bridge of her nose.

"Shunsui." The man was being intentionally infuriating. "Why didn't you say something before this?"

"It moved differently than a normal human," he leaned back in his chair, fingers tapping against the pages of his book and completely ignored her question. "Which fits if it has any sort of developed gene mutation," he glanced past her and at the window behind her shoulder. It had crept through the rain, almost inhuman in how it had been untouched by the downpour. "The rain was sliding off of it, like it wasn't there." His glanced back at her. "I don't know what it was doing, but it walked right past me, took a turn down the alley and disappeared." It hadn't paid attention to him, because like the other people walking down the street next to it, he wasn't supposed to see it. "The next day a little lady had screamed that her son was missing, the police had chalked it up to a runaway."

A runaway that had not made the paper, but the woman's son's room had had backed up to that alleyway. Shunsui glanced at the window again, eyes narrowed. Whatever it was, it had taken the boy.

"Disappeared?"

"Like a pissed off wind sprite, who got salt in the face." He smiled. "Expect it wasn't a wind sprite."

Nanao's fingers paused in their tapping motion. "How many wind sprites have you pissed off exactly?"

Shunsui smiled at her. "It is amazing how many misunderstandings a good pint of sake can produce." He paused, "or fix."

Nanao narrowed her eyes at him and was in the process of curling her fingers around the book in front of her when the door to the little hotel room they were staying in opened. She glanced behind her and blinked at a rumpled Toushirou and a backpack carrying Momo behind him.

"We are here." Momo said, dropping her pack. "I hope you have food." She paused. "And hot water."

Toushirou moved to the small couch and sat his bag down before collapsing into it. "Or just water."

"There is running hot water here." Shunsui closed his book and pushed to his feet. "Although, it works best when there are two -"

"Not happening." Momo glanced at Nanao who nodded and motioned to the bathroom. They were in her room and Momo was welcome to the shower. Momo scooped her bag back up and moved towards the bathroom. "Toushirou can tell you what happened." She shut the door behind her and Toushirou sighed, closing his eyes.

"Bad flight?" Shunsui guessed, glancing at the door one eyebrow quirked upwards.

Toushirou glanced up. "The train broke down twice. Then they ran out of food." He waved his hand. "Took us three days to get here."

"Ah. We will feed her after she showers then." He glanced at the door. "She is always a happier after you feed her."

Toushirou quirked an eyebrow in his direction. "If you say so."

"How did the case end?" Nanao grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini fridge and set it on the table next to him.

"Well enough," Toushirou tilted his head back to rest on the edge of the couch. "Mean sucker, had two kids with him when we caught up with him. They're fine or as fine as they will be given the circumstances." Children were resilient and had as good a chance of anyone at recovering, if they got the right sort of help. He sighed. Although, with Momo's report they should get what they needed, the woman had a way of chewing right through police arguments when they unconvinced her.

Probably something she learned from Shunsui. They both had a knack for talking people into things, although he didn't think that Shunsui used quite the same tactics. He didn't have the eyes for it.

Nanao nodded. "Is Momo all right?"

"Yes." She was as fine as she was going to be to anyway. She hadn't thrown up or had nightmares on the train ride in, so he was taking it as a good sign.

Nanao nodded. Toushirou would tell her - she hoped he would anyway - if Momo had gotten herself in over her head. Maybe.

"My room is next door," Shunsui said, "if you want to grab a shower."

Toushirou shook his head. "Would rather eat something first."

"Where are we eating?"Momo opened the door and dropped her towel on the chair next to the bathroom. She was starving. The train food had sucked before they ran out yesterday and even with all the food she had packed for snacks her supply had run out fast. She blamed Toushirou for his lack of snack foresight.

"There is a little café just down the street," Nanao pushed to her feet and grabbed her purse. "We can catch up there." It had enough variety that they could all find something to eat and enough privacy that they could talk without having to worry about being overheard by half the city.

The fact that it was Shunsui's preferred food establishment would make sure he behaved.

Momo nodded and grabbed a hair tie from her bag. "Sounds good, I am starving." She shot Nanao a glance. "I am taking the boat wherever we go next. That train is a death trap waiting to happen."

"Nanao liked it well enough," Shunsui pointed out, buttoning his coat.

Momo blinked at him and then glanced at Nanao. "Right."

Toushirou pulled a file from his bag before standing. "Ichigo said you wanted this," he dropped it on the table. "You might look at it later."

"Ah, Ukitake had said he had him working on a few things."

Toushirou shrugged. "Rukia dropped it on off on her way through. She didn't offer any specifics."

Shunsui glanced at Momo and shut the door behind him. "She offer up any specifics to you?"

Momo shook her head. "Nothing relating to invisible men." She shrugged. She and Rukia had worked a few cases together, but Rukia hadn't been working with Ichigo long enough to tell her anything of interest and she had never met the man.

"Invisible men?"

Momo glanced at Shunsui. "Ichigo's report," she reminded him. "You should read it."

"And I will," he agreed. "After we eat, although you could paraphrase it for us."

"Food first." Momo pushed forward to stairway, ignoring the elevator. Nanao shot Toushirou a questioning look and he shrugged, following Momo down the stairs. Shunsui held open the door and motioned Nanao through.

"Something wrong the elevator Momo?" Nanao questioned. She hadn't had a problem with the elevator before she had left her in Paris. Although, if they had walked up seven flights of stairs to get to their room, that would explain why Toushirou had looked happy to just sit down.

"They fall down."

Then again, they might need to get rooms a little closer to the ground floor.

Momo and Toushirou were determined to not look at each other and Nanao couldn't decide if they were mad or embarrassed. Things were tense and a quick glance at Shunsui promised that he was enjoying the show. The food had been delivered and mostly eaten over the last half hour and while hearing about the train ride down had been somewhat interesting, they hadn't really come here to talk about their travel.

Still, it was a nice restaurant that Shunsui had dropped them in this time. They had real tea, which was probably more for Toushirou's benefit than anyone else's since he had already gone through two pots of the stuff. Nanao poured herself another cup and ignored Shunsui's amused glance. She was just beating the kid to it, otherwise she wasn't getting any. Momo had water to accompany her tea and Shunsui had ordered some fruity thing from the bar. The fact that he had a large fuzzy pink drink in front of him should have been more amusing that it was. Momo at least, didn't look quite as grumpy as she had before they settled in.

"So what happened?" She might as well start things off, since Shunsui seemed determined to sit back and let them fidget. She was not that patient.

Momo blinked at her a little and sighed when Toushirou just… stared at Shunsui. "We tagged and bagged him." She wilted a little at Nanao's continued stare. "He… protested a bit," she admitted, glancing down at her tea cup. He had protested a lot, but going into too much detail would get her lectured by Shunsui and she wasn't certain that she wanted to deal with that lecture right now. Not when Toushirou had given her the same lecture on the way down here. Twice.

"If by protested," Toushirou clipped, fingers tapping against the smooth wood of their table for a moment before stilling, "You mean, he tried he gut you so he could partake of your intestines, then yes. He protested."

Momo winced and stared at her tea little harder while Nanao glanced over at Toushirou and blinked. "He what"? _Ew._

"He missed."Momo's shoulders hunched over and she fumbled with her cup for a moment, before her fingers managed to successfully curl around the porcelain.

Toushirou quirked an eyebrow in her direction, lips turning down at the edges. "He had bad aim."

"I ducked." Momo sat back in her chair and crossed her arms, pressing her lips together for a moment. "With great skill even." She wasn't going to fidget. Fidgeting meant that you were guilty of something and she was guilty of _nothing. _Except, perhaps, of not ducking quite as fast as she should have.

The eyebrow shifted upwards another notch. "If by ducked with great skill you mean screaming and flailing, sure."

Momo narrowed her eyes. "Why you…"

"Children," Shunsui stepped in, tapping a finger against the table. "Perhaps you could evaluate each other's ducking skills at a later time."

Momo stared at him before hunching over again and taking a sip of her tea. "He was some sort of… transmuter," she shrugged, glancing up at the delicately wrought lamp hanging just above their table. "Somewhere along the way the lines grayed and the idea of changing things consumed him. He thought that children were gifts of the gods to be eaten and changed into their future forms, he was… all hard edges and…" she paused, eyes un-focusing for a moment.

"Slimy." She curled her fingers around her cup. "But once we knew what he was doing, it was easy enough to track him down."

Nanao glanced at Toushirou who was watching Momo and her eyes narrowed briefly. She looked worn. She needed more of a rest than she had given herself after that case, she glanced at Shunsui. He wasn't blind. She glanced back at Toushirou. He looked annoyed, but not angry so maybe he knew Momo well enough now to catch the signs as well.

"Slimy?"

"Yes," Toushirou interjected. "Although to be fair, Momo didn't have to look for him often, once we had his trail. He wasn't trying to hide." He snorted. "The police could have located him themselves if they had spent a few moments looking for him instead of arguing whose jurisdiction he was under."

Momo nodded. "The screams should have given it away," she admitted. "They were a half assed police force." Anyone could have heard those screams. She still heard them when she slept.

Shunsui leaned forward. "Screams?"

Momo made a face. "He wasn't being secretive at all; the children were kept in an old hotel with no windows. That is how we found them actually, the screams." She glanced down into her tea again. The children had screamed themselves hoarse, begging for someone _anyone_ to come save them. The bastard had let them to, gave them a false sense of hope and then… butchered anyone who came in to investigate.

If Toushirou hadn't been quite so fast with those little knives of his, well they might have ended up in the same situation. At least they were not stuck in cages being poked and prodded to find the juiciest bits.

"It wasn't pretty," she murmured. "And the children that we rescued will need intense therapy in order to recover, but the psychiatrists were hopeful."If they stopped waking up screaming in the middle of the night in a few years, it would be a miracle. She turned her attention back to Shunsui.

"What did you need us to do here?" If they kept talking about this she would go mad. Momo clasped her hands on her lap underneath the table.

Nanao sat her tea cup on her saucer and glanced over at Toushirou. She would need to talk to Momo later, make sure the girl was all right. NPC's couldn't train for the sort of emotional stress they would undergo in those might not have been the best choice to send along with her. He cared he was just… gruff.

"Were hunting invisible men." She told her dryly, "that might not exist."

"Nanao!" Shunsui chided, tipping his hat in her direction. "They exist."

"I have found no logical proof that anything exists outside of your explanation, which was lacking in detail. Other than 'it moved through the rain' you have absolutely nothing that points towards an invisible being stalking the inhabitants of Paris." She glanced back at Momo. "It rains a lot to."

Momo made a face. "Great."

"There is nothing wrong with the rain," Toushirou sat back and crossed his arms. Absolutely nothing wrong with it. He liked the rain.

Momo turned her head and blinked at him. "I knew it."

Toushirou blinked at her slowly. "Knew what?"

She pointed at him. "You _would_ like the rain."

"A significant portion of the world does, Momo." Shunsui smiled at her. "In fact, I do believe that most of them reside within Paris."

Momo rolled her eyes. "Are they all unreasonably grumpy?"

"I am not unreasonably grumpy." He was not unreasonably grumpy. She was unreasonably moody. It just brought out the grumpy.

Momo snorted. "Yes you are! Birds make you grumpy. _Sunshine_ makes you grumpy, I bet babies and tiny puppies make you grumpy too."

"Children," Shunsui wondered if they had any idea how they sounded. Probably not. "Back to the case." He flashed them a brilliant smile. "Unless of course, there is something you want to tell me."

Momo made a face at him. "No."

"There is nothing in any of the papers," Nanao reached up and started ticking off fingers. If that kept up they wouldn't ever talk about the case. "In the news, on the radio, or being talked about in the pubs." She dropped her hand. "There have been a few disappearances, but nothing out of the ordinary or anything that would result in an investigation. If anything, Paris is to clean." Hot spots were normally bothered by other things, dark things. Things that made more of a commotion when they came to town.

Toushirou pushed one of his fries into his ketchup. "Paris isn't normally that quiet."

"It is something of a mystery," Shunsui agreed. Initially, it was one of the things that had caught his attention. Paris itself was always under attack by something. This quiet was unnatural and all the possibilities floating around the city itself gave him a migraine if he looked at them to closely.

He hoped that between them Nanao or Momo might catch a glimpse of something. Nanao hadn't caught anything yet, but he hadn't put her in the way of anything that might trigger her sight either. Toushirou would provide additional backup. Back up he was somewhat afraid they might need. The kid was good at killing a lot of things quickly or from great distances. So long as he had line of sight, he could hit it.

At the very least he could keep an eye on Momo, leaving him to watch over Nanao. He glanced over at Nanao and tipped his hat a bit. She looked lovely with the old fashioned restaurant as a backdrop. The light however was to harsh. Candlelight suited her, softened her edges.

"You saw it though?" Momo pitched in. She waved her hand. "Actually saw something anyway?"

Shunsui glanced back at Momo. "Yes, it disappeared."

Momo nodded. She wouldn't lose it in the rain, not if they could find it again. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the table. "So we don't have any leads because you lost track of it and it's invisible."

"I did not lose it."

"So you let the thing that we are looking for, that we don't have any leads on, and sometimes turns invisible, get away?" Momo stared at him.

"No."

Nanao waved her hand. "We need you to see if you can track him Momo. All we have is a location," this would go on for hours if she let it. "So we will have to start there."

Momo nodded. "If it has been a while I might not get anything," she warned. "Especially if it is a high traffic area, the residue will have worn off by now." It only took a few days for something to disappear completely, sometimes hours if there were enough people moving through the area, and Shunsui had been in Paris a long time. She would either find something at this point which would be alarming or she wouldn't find anything at all.

"We should start there anyway," Toushirou interjected, "there isn't any reason to say he didn't go there several times before he made a move in that area or that he hasn't gone back. We might get lucky and find something."

Nanao nodded, pushing her plate back away from her seat. "We need something to break, Shunsui and I haven't found anything yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't there."

Momo pushed her chair back. "If I can get a few hours sleep in a non-moving vehicle, I will be ready to go." She was tired; she always struggled to focus when she was tired. A little sleep would go a long way towards helping her pin it down. It would also go a long way towards her sanity.

"Back to the hotel then," Shunsui agreed, pushing to his feet. "However, I am going insist you sleep in separate rooms." He smiled in their direction. "No hanky panky before a busy day."

Nanao managed to pull Momo after her before the woman followed up with her creative – if physically impossible – threat.


	2. Chapter 2

They were hunting. To be more precise, Momo was hunting and they were following her through the streets like a pack of well meaning tourists. Toushirou nodded to the police officer who was watching the corner. He relaxed a bit when he got the nod in return. Last thing they needed was for the man to start following them out of suspicion. Paris was notorious for watching tourists like hawks. There weren't many of them these days and the more they were able to look like they belonged there the better it would be for them. He could nod a few times to keep them under suspicion of the locals.

Momo weaved through the streets and he glanced over at Shunsui. They needed to work on her focus. She kept tripping on curbs or attempting to run into things because she wasn't paying attention to what was going on. He reached over, grasped her shoulder in one hand and pulled her to his side. The cart shifted past them and he sighed when Momo never took her eyes off the road. She brought new meaning to the phrase 'tunnel vision'. He caught Nanao's glance while shifting Momo around a hole in the asphalt. If her foot landed in that, she was going to twist it and hell if he was carrying her back to the hotel and she would demand to be carried if she injured herself. She was difficult.

"At least it isn't raining," Shunsui chimed in from behind them, hands burrowed in his pockets. "She tends to fall down when it rains."

"I am focusing, not deaf." Momo paused long enough to shoot Shunsui a glare. "And it was once."

"Twice."

"There were trolls the second time and _we_ were covered in muck."

"You still need to learn to dodge better," Toushirou said tugging her around a pole. "How do you do this when you're alone?"

"At night," Momo admitted, glancing at the crowd for a moment. "Less people." Less things for her to run into when it was dark, well there were less people to see her deal with the things she ran into when it was dark.

He stared at her. "Momo..."

"Are you picking up anything?" Nanao took over for Toushirou, grasping Momo's arm to shift her around the incoming crowd. They needed her to focus, not fight with Toushirou. She shot him a look over Momo's head. She had a hard enough time focusing on the things around her; if she argued instead of focusing she would lose her concentration.

If she lost her concentration she could lose the trail and if they had to start this day over where they had begun she would strangle both of them.

Momo huffed at the man who almost ran into her and glanced back at Nanao. "It's faint, but… there is something strange about this trail." Momo cocked her head. "It is to weak for me to really latch onto though. I keep losing it." She paused. "Or it is fading in and out like a ghost would."

"What does it feel like? Besides a ghost-like."

"Like I stepped in a pile of dog poo with bare feet," she said. She hadn't really ever felt something that disgusting before. "I want to throw up." Toushirou took a pointed step away from her and she shot him a glare. "I wouldn't throw up on you." Well she might, but not intentionally.

Nanao sighed. If Momo started throwing up then Toushirou would probably join her. Never let it be said that the man had a strong stomach. "Is it getting stronger or weaker?"

"Stronger," she paused and closed her eyes, fingers twitching at her side. "More to the right," she turned and opened her eyes. "Except I am not sure we can go through a building." She blinked at the building. It was old, old and worn down and had a large sign that, if her French was correct, advertising empty apartments. Did people actually live in buildings like that?

She would not pay rent for a building like that.

"There is probably a back door," Toushirou said grasping her arm again and pulling her along.

"It could have targeted something in the complex," Shunsui agreed. The building itself had little to no vegetation growing around it and the windows were barred. He blinked at them a bit. Whether that was to keep the tenants in rather than anything out, he couldn't say. The back door however, was easy enough to find. "It isn't locked," he motioned them into the hallway. "Such a trusting town we are visiting."

"Someone should charge a little more rent and fix the place up," Momo said glancing up at the ceiling. "That is just ick." She ran her fingers along the wall and scowled at the scum that came off. She rubbed her fingers over her thigh to clean them. Oh that was double ick. She squinted at the floor. Was that the lighting or was the floor moving on its own? She was going to blame the lighting. Floors didn't really shift that way naturally.

"It is probably all they can afford," Nanao pointed out. "We aren't exactly in the high class section of town." She brushed at the sleeve of her shirt and sighed. "Although, they could try a little harder."

"I don't think that people are going to steal anything from any of the residents here." Shunsui pointed out. "They probably barricade their doors with spikes and other nefarious weapons of choice."

Toushirou glanced at the rug at his feet and inched back towards the center of the room. "The health department might need a tip or two about this building." Why did Momo insist on walking through the most disgusting places?

"It's old," Momo agreed. She paused, glancing behind them for a moment before moving down the hallway. Old, creepy, and smelly was what this place was. She wrinkled her nose. She would have to find a laundry mat and wash her shoes when they were done rummaging through this building. Unless the hotel washed shoes.

"You are sure it came through here?" Shunsui tipped his hat in her direction.

Momo nodded. "Yes." She made a vague motion with her hand. "I can almost taste the stench." It was thick and coating the back of her throat. There was enough emotion here to make her dizzy, but the… the _thing_ cut through it all. Which was the only reason she was still able to track it.

Nanao waved her hand in front of her face. "You're sure it's not the building?"

"Yes," Momo shrugged. "The building smells much better." She rolled her neck. "I claim dibbs on the first shower when we get back to the hotel."

"That bad?" Nanao said.

Momo hesitated. "You're not picking anything up?"

Nanao shook her head. "Nothing."

Momo nodded, chewing on her bottom lip. This place was old; old enough that a well trained psychic like Nanao should get something out of it. People walked past this day after day, leaving a bit of themselves, leaving a visible residue. She could sense each bit of those memories, shifting past her like little ghosts on the walls and if she closed her eyes and focused she could almost reach out and touch them, grasp onto them, and follow them wherever they would take her. She wasn't looking for those memories. She glanced at the dark blob, slowing moving down the hallway and moved after it. "This way."

She was after whatever it was that was hunting those blobs.

She opened the door at the end of the hall and glanced up. Of course there was a giant staircase in front of them, blocking the way. "Staircase," she motioned upwards. Why were their always staircases?

Toushirou started up the stairs. "How far up are they?" It figured that whatever they were after would be on the top floor or the roof. This building wasn't that tall. At most there were five or six floors. He brushed his fingers along the brace hidden under the sleeve of his shirt. The hallways had been dark, but the small lights that gave you the steps were… creepy. He shifted the bag off his shoulders and onto his back and glanced at the floor. It was dark enough that they wouldn't be able to see anything, blood or otherwise until they were on top of it.

"Not sure," Momo said. She hesitated on one of the stairs, staring at them. "Why do they always squeak?"

"Because older buildings have less technology hanging around them." Shunsui stared at the stairs for a moment, planting his foot carefully. "They also have character," he winced when the stair creaked under his weight. "Stairs are preferable in this case. All things considered I certainly wouldn't want to hop on an elevator in this building."

"You mean their noisy." Momo muttered, moving past him again. She eased along the edges, testing the weight. If the stair was going to crumble, she was light enough to catch or that was her theory.

"They have character."

"You tend to get where you want to go, when you walk." Toushirou pointed out. "Perhaps we should continue upwards?" He stared at Shunsui.

"It would presumably assist us in finding what were looking for," Nanao said. She motioned at Momo who was three steps above the rest of them. "We shouldn't let her get to far ahead of us." If whatever Momo was after headed back in their direction, Momo might not be paying enough attention to her surroundings to notice until it was right in front of her.

Ducking might not be an option then. That was the problem with having Momo lead. She walked into things that a pre-cog or someone like Toushirou or Shunsui would do their best to avoid. She reached up and brushed her bangs out of her face, eyes narrowing. The building was to clean. Like something had sucked everything out of it that belonged, everything that she could have read to help her understand what was going on here or what was going to happen.

It wasn't often that she actively looked for something and she found nothing.

"Assume it's the top and keep on walking?" Shunsui interjected, tipping his hat so he could glance up at them.

"Probably," Momo agreed.

He sighed. "There always at the top."

"It's the most easily defendable position," Nanao reminded him. "You can see everything coming at you." Creepy things always wanted to see everything around them and not just because they wanted to defend something. There were hunters too.

"And everything can see you going down," Toushirou paused below Momo when she hesitated. "Momo?"

Momo stared at the wall in front of her brows furrowing. She swallowed, hand moving to cover her mouth for a moment before she motioned at the door. "It is getting stronger," she took a deep breathe through her nose. "Let's try this floor."

"Are you all right?" Nanao glanced below them, fingers settling on the gun she kept beneath her jacket. Momo had nightmares about whatever it was she felt and saw on these trips, but it normally didn't physically manifest.

She wasn't getting anything.

Shunsui glanced upwards. "Third floor?"

Momo scowled down at him. "Better than the top floor, yes?" She glanced up the stairwell.

"Unless you want to walk to the top of the building," she tossed her thumb over her shoulder. "If you do, please go right ahead."

Shunsui sighed. "We need to find you a man sweet-heart; all that aggression cannot be healthy."

Momo hissed at him, before moving to open the door. Nanao moved in behind her and Toushirou glanced at him, fingers easing over his brace again. "Should you be baiting her right now?"

Shunsui glanced at him mildly. "Should you be speaking to me instead of her?"

Toushirou snorted and moved into the hallway after the girls. This hallway had marginally better lighting than the previous one they had been in, which was somewhat relieving. Light meant that they could see something approaching. Momo stumbled a bit and Nanao leaned close. He couldn't hear what she said, but Momo shook her firmly. "Everything all right?"

"It is just…" Momo waved her hand.

"It stinks," Nanao said. "But I can't see anything." She glanced at Shunsui. "Are you picking something up?"

Shunsui looked at the hallway, hat tipping to cover his eyes. "I don't smell anything," he murmured. "But Momo is more sensitive to these sorts of things. Can you continue?"

"Yes," Momo pushed off the wall. "I will just need some air in a bit."

"That can be done. Toushirou, can you take the lead? Momo you direct him, Nanao please take the back. If something doesn't look right, hit it first and ask questions second." He moved into position behind Momo. "Stay close, arms length at most from each other."

Momo nodded, letting Toushirou move into the lead. "You're not getting anything?"

"No." Shunsui said.

Nanao eased her gun out of her holster, eyes narrowed. It was quiet in the hallway. Much to quiet, she paused in front of one of the hallway doors and she narrowed her eyes. Nothing. She tried the door handle and relaxed a little to find it locked. If the doors were locked, then whoever lived within the rooms was most likely alive.

She eased forward a few more steps to fall back into place behind Shunsui. There were lights under the door at the end of the hallway, but those were the only lights on within the rooms themselves that she could see. She glanced behind them, eyes narrowing. There was something off here, but she couldn't quite place exactly what it was.

Momo hesitated at the front of the group. "There is…"

Shunsui lurched forward, arm out as if it catch her and Momo dropped, her whole body convulsing. She twisted, and Shunsui dropped on top of her, arms pinning her to the floor. Her legs jerked under him. "Find it," he snapped, muscles straining to hold Momo to the floor. "Quickly."

Nanao motioned Toushirou forward and brought her gun up, sighting along it as she peered down the hallway. "There." There was something down there, although she couldn't quite make it out. The chair at the end of the hallway picked itself up and flew toward a shadow moving along the edge of the corridor. There was a deep hiss and Nanao shifted her gun toward the sound.

Momo screamed and the thing appeared for a moment, barely flickering against the shadows. Toushirou's needles flashed through the air and it made a strange noise between a hiss and a howl. Nanao took a few steps toward it, Toushirou on her heels, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

Momo's scream cut off abruptly and Nanao risked a glance behind her. Momo was absolutely still and Shunsui had pushed to his knees beside her, hat knocked askew on his head. "Shunsui?" She half-lowered the gun even as she glanced back down the hallway.

"Check on Momo." Shunsui pushed to his feet, gun appearing in his hand. "Toushirou, head down the hallway, make sure it doesn't double back." He absently shoved his hat back into place and sidled past Nanao, following Toushirou down the hallway.

Nanao dropped to her knees, fingers settling against Momo's throat. She was breathing hard and her pulse was rapid, but she didn't seem to be to in any danger at the moment. Nanao fingered her gun, easing into a defensive stance. There was nothing here, very little light, no sound, nothing for her to use to locate whatever it was that had attacked Momo.

Toushirou circled back first, easing down beside Momo with a soft, short sigh. His fingers slipped under her jaw to her pulse point and he glanced at Nanao. "What happened?"

"Seizures," Shunsui appeared out of the dark as he holstered his weapon. "We won't know exactly what happened until she can talk."

"Seizures?" Nanao took her cue from Shunsui and settled her gun back into her holster. "That hasn't happened before."

"No." Toushirou agreed. "It hasn't." His hand moved from her jaw to her shoulder and he looked up at Shunsui with a furrowed brow.

"Can you take her back to the hotel?" Shunsui glanced at the door with the lights. "Whatever that thing was, it came from that end of the apartments. Nanao and I will check out the rooms on that end, but I do not want to leave her on the floor in this place."

Toushirou adjusted the pack on his back. "I can take her back, easy enough to hail a cab."

"I would say that she had a bit too much to drink." Nanao sat back on her heels and glanced down the hallway. "Considering how many bars we passed, any passing police officer should find that rather believable."

"I'll take care of it." He eased an arm under her shoulders and legs before lifting her with a grunt.

"We will meet you back at the hotel." Shunsui tugged Nanao to her feet. "If she gets worse, call a doctor, tell him whatever you have to make it believable."

"I'll take care of it," Toushirou repeated, his tone sharp. He headed for the stairs, moving slowly.

"She will be fine," Shunsui squeezed Nanao's shoulder. "Come on, let's find whatever thing that was and get rid of it."

Nanao nodded and moved to the end of the hallway. The door was locked. Nanao eased the lock pick into the door, gently wiggling them into place. Things were always locked when you needed to get into them.

"I never knew you were a lock smith, Nanao."

She eased the twin to the pick already in the lock beside it and sighed. "I saw no reason to tell you." She twisted the picks and eyed the door wearily when the lock clicked. All right, it was a dank, dirty, old building with horrible security. At least that made the locks easier to pick.

"Someone needs to request a refund on their down-payment." She pushed to her feet and gently shoved the door open with her hand. "What do you think that thing was?"

"I am not sure." He moved past her and into the room. "Something with a taste for blood," he said, grimacing at the red-stained walls.

Nanao stared at the walls. "All right." That was a lot of blood. She carefully stepped over the disembodied foot just… sitting in the middle of the floor and stared at the bodies. "The whole floor?"

Shunsui nodded, "probably."

"The door was locked." She stared at the foot; brows furrowed, and hunkered down next to it.

"Which means it can move through space somehow." Shunsui rapped his knuckles against the wall and frowned at it. "Everything here seems solid. Are you picking anything up here?"

"Wrong person." She eased the foot over with a pen and sighed. "It was eating them." She glanced at the blood oozing from the one closest to her for a moment. "Recently." The metallic smell of blood was overpowering. She covered her mouth with her hand for a moment before she spoke. "What is that thing?"

Shunsui tapped against the walls for a few more moments, frowning when nothing seemed out of place. "Most likely a demon."

Nanao turned sharply, eyes narrowed at him. "Demons don't exist."

Shunsui glanced over his shoulder at her, eyebrow arching. "My dear, sweet, Nanao: demons certainly do exist."

She pushed to her feet and backed away from the bodies, crossing her arms. "You're sure about that?"

"How else would something move in and out of a locked room without using the door?" He dropped his hand to his side and moved away from the walls. "Doors are not the problem." He glanced at the bodies. "Beings that move through solids are powerful. Whatever this is, we interrupted its feeding and it's going to have to find more food, which means it will be on the hunt."

Nanao covered her mouth again. That smell was awful. "We should leave before someone decides to investigate the noise Toushirou made by slamming that chair into the wall." She motioned at the bodies. "We can leave an anonymous tip with the police later, let them deal with the bodies."

"Yes," Shunsui agreed. "Better to keep Gotei out of this one was long as we can." He gave her a slight smile. "The police won't take kindly to our intervention here."

"Never do," Nanao muttered, backing out of the room carefully. The last thing she needed to do was to step in all that blood. Bodies seemed to produce far more blood than what should have been possible, all things considered. "We need to check on Momo."

"Toushirou probably has her back at the hotel by now."

"I wasn't worried about that. She is a trained agent, Shunsui. That thing, whatever it is, should not have been able to do that." She wasn't calling it a demon yet; not without more proof than just Shunsui's word. "She should have been able to block it." They were trained to prevent things from attacking them that way.

"Demons, my dear, are tricky things. We will work on her shielding once we know exactly what happened." Shunsui gave her a half-shrug as he fell into step beside her. "And we have to wait for her to wake up before we will know that."

Nanao shut the door behind them, listening to the locks click back into place. She glanced at Shunsui and grunted softly in annoyance. "You could have done that earlier."

He gently tweaked her nose. "And miss the image of you breaking and entering? Perish the thought."

Toushirou ran his hand through his hair and stared at Nanao. "A demon?"

Nanao took a long sip of whatever it was Shunsui had gotten her from downstairs. It was hot and tasted reasonably like tea. "Apparently."

"They exist?"

"According to Shunsui who apparently called Jyuushirou who agreed." Nanao shrugged. She glanced at the door behind him. "How is Momo doing?"

Toushirou leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "She has been asleep since she collapsed. I figured that sleep was the best thing for her, so I haven't tried to wake her."

"Let her sleep as long as she can," Shunsui walked through the adjourning door and dropped into the chair next to Nanao. "She took a beating this afternoon, although from what I can tell there shouldn't be any permanent damage. Although, she will probably have nightmares knowing her."

Nanao tapped her fingers against her cup. "Do you think it will come after her?"

"Probably, it won't like that she can track it. Toushirou, you will have to either convince her to give you half the bed or take the couch. Nanao, you may have my bed and I will take the couch. Whatever it is, it will be back although, whether that is tonight or later is anyone's guess. We upset it and it going to need to find dinner."

Toushirou winced. "I would rather not end up as its next meal."

"You had best duck fast them."

Shunsui tipped his hat at the sun and frowned at the shadows. They had been searching for the shadow demon for three hours or so and had yet to come up with anything concrete. Whatever it was, it had successfully gone to ground. He would have liked to talk to Momo before heading out this morning, but besides a brief stint to the bathroom and Nanao forcing her to drink some broth, she hadn't been awake long enough for him to do much more than confirm that she had a killer headache and felt sick. Nanao had insisted that they let her sleep and he didn't necessarily disagree with her decision. Getting a coherent statement out of her would be difficult while she was nursing a migraine.

Of course, having Toushirou sitting besides the bed and glowering at anything that moved had been amusing as well.

"Are you getting anything?" Nanao questioned, moving up behind him.

"Not at the moment," Shunsui tugged his hat back into position and glanced down at her. "Are you?"

Nanao frowned. "Nothing."

That was unpleasant news. Either she was being blocked or there was nothing for her to predict. Demons, Jyuushirou had been rather explicit in the information that he had sent over, were hard to predict. There were very few cases on record in Gotei dealing with anything that resembled demons. There was enough information for Jyuushirou to wearily explain that they needed more information, but from what they did have tended to lean towards was that pre-cogs had trouble sensing or seeing anything about the future in relation to them. He wasn't certain if it was because they were always fluctuating and therefore it was near impossible to see what they were going to do or if they resided outside of whatever realm pre-cogs tapped into in order to see the future.

He was hopeful that the being would make its decision quickly and give them something to work with before it went hunting again.

"Are you going to be mad at me forever, Nanao?" If they weren't being productive with their hunt then they could be productive elsewhere.

Nanao faltered, eyes wide. "What?"

Shunsui stopped glancing down at her. "Are you going to stay angry with me forever?" He repeated.

"Should I still be mad at you?" She wasn't certain if she was mad at him. He had deserved her anger although after having the time needed to think her way through everything, she better understood his position. They lived dangerous lives and while nothing was guaranteed she wasn't helpless and there had to be some sort of compromise. She needed to do what she did best without feeling smothered and over protected, he needed to protect. She didn't like it and she certainly did not agree with it, but she understood it.

Still, she wasn't fully prepared to make it easy on him.

It wouldn't work between them if they couldn't find some sort of middle ground. She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment. Momo had asked her if she was ready to give up on him and she wasn't certain that she had a satisfactory answer to that either. Even with analytical side of her brain presenting her the pro's and the con's she couldn't quite decide how she felt about it now that her temper had cooled.

"You certainly were six months ago." He said.

She reached up to push her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. "You didn't trust me." That was the heart of both of their problems: trust. He didn't trust her to watch his back and she didn't trust him to let her.

He walked beside her quietly. "I trust you Nanao."

"No you don't." She had had a long time to think about what exactly had gone wrong and she was not in the mood for half truths. She wasn't certain if she was prepared for this conversation now or not, but they were having it.

He stopped and she paused beside him.

"Why do you think that Nanao?"

"Because you don't," she stared at him. "You smothered me, Kyouraku." She wasn't going to loose her temper. It would defeat the purpose of the conversationl, but she was tempted. "You blocked my ability to do my job. What exactly about that said 'I trust you'?"

"I was not keeping you from doing your job." He wasn't going to apologize for keeping her safe.

"You certainly were. I am not going to sit in the back of the car and tell you were to turn, I am going to drive." She jutted her chin out. "If you cannot accept that, then this won't work. You will smother me and I refuse to be tucked in the closet to keep me safe."

He blinked at her, hand straying to the brim of his hat. "What is wrong with keeping you safe?"

"I have been taking care of myself for along time Shunsui." She glanced up at him before turning her attention to the window beside her. She knew, on an intellectual level why he had reacted the way that he had, but she couldn't quite make herself see it as anything less than his refusal to let her do what she had trained to do.

She glanced at the people sitting around the radio and hesitated. "Something is going on," she interrupted Shunsui, moving into the small room. Paris had lost its TV's with the war and had never quite gotten the infrastructure back up in order. Only a small percentage of the worlds cities had gotten things back in order to where they had been before the war destroyed the worlds communication systems.

She glanced at Shunsui. There was only one way the police could have found those bodies. She nodded at the bar tender and glanced back at the radio. "Police are currently looking for a gang of people and recommend that you report any suspicious activity." The radio was clear and crisp and she smiled a little at that. It had been a long time since she had heard a clear radio. Even the apparatus that Gotei used wasn't quite that clear. Still, they would be looking for strangers.

Shunsui might be able to fake the accent and blend in, but there was no way Toushirou or Momo would be able to do so.

"So what is good here?" Shunsui questioned, moving to the bar tender and eying the selection behind the bar. "My wife and I are visiting on the recommendation of a friend, but I have to admit I haven't found anything yet worth drinking."

Nanao kept an eye on the man out of the corner of her eye and felt the muscles in her neck relax when the lines in his shoulder settled. She turned her attention to the radio. Shunsui would keep the man's attention, make sure that 'any suspicious activity' headed in their direction would be on how the cute couple managed to deal with each other.

"Your wife huh?"

"Yes, married ten years." Shunsui winked at her. "Cute as the day I meet her to be honest," he motioned towards one of the old, expensive looking bottles. "Scotch on the rocks please."

"Ah, nice choice." The bar tender said before moving to pour his drink. "Good to the last drop this stuff is."

"Glenmorangie is always a good choice," Shunsui agreed. "Although I am surprised to see it here," he sipped at it carefully. "And in such fine condition."

"You recognize it then," the bar tender offered him a slight smile. "My cousin imported it before the war took things apart. I have a case, we mostly keep it off the shelves but with the festivities coming we always pull a bottle out in rememberence of the good times."

Shunsui raised his glass. "And a fine gentleman your cousin is."

Nanao moved over. "Stop harassing the nice man, honey." She glanced over at the bar-tender. "I thought we were here to see the sights, not drink the scotch."

Shunsui glanced up at her. "Now sweetie, you know I can never turn down a good scotch."

She frowned at him. "I can blame your Uncle Mitch for that I imagine."

He tipped the glass in his direction. "You can certainly thank home for several things, my dear. My drinking is the least of them."

She stared at him, eyebrow arching. "So you say."

He tipped back the scotch and sighed, glancing over at the bar tender. "She holds the purse strings," he explained, tipping his hat back. "Be right glad to visit again."

"Our doors are open until midnight," the bar tender moved the glance out of his way. "Come by anytime."

Shunsui glanced down at Nanao when she tensed under the hand he settled on her shoulder. He shifted, draping his arm around her shoulders. "We will stop by," he promised. "Thank you for your kind service." A few bills on the table and he was ushering Nanao out of the bar.

"What did you see?" he tugged her down one of the side streets, mouth close to her ear.

"Hotel," she gasped, stumbling a bit. "He knows where Momo is."

Toushirou rubbed the towel through his hair and glanced at the bed. Momo was asleep again. His lips quirked up at the edges and he glanced at the door, dropping his towel onto the edge of the couch. He had negotiated the furniture into a more defensible position. The large armchair that had resided in the corner was settled against the main door to keep anything from just barging in and everything else had been maneuvered for maximum cover.

Being able to move things effortlessly around the room made for easy preparations. Shunsui and Nanao were right in their assumption that whatever it was, it would come back after Momo. Nothing liked being hunted successfully and Momo was a good hunter. A little addle brained sometimes, but she knew what she was doing.

Mostly.

Momo sat up suddenly and stared at him, eyes half awake. "Good morning," he told her, settling on the couch with the paper. "Sleep well?"

He watched her blink at him out of the corner of her eye and turned to stare at her when she finally caught on. The blush was cute.

"Yes," Momo said, tugging the blanket up to her shoulders. "You?" He had apparently been up for a while, since that was freshly washed hair poking out in various directions.

"I slept well," he folded the paper and settled it beside him. "If you are hungry, we can order from room service. Although if you eat I suggest something light."

She nodded. "I am not hungry." Not yet anyway, she made a slight face. She wouldn't be hungry another half hour or so. She stared at the floor before carefully easing the covers off. Maybe that was why he had abandoned the bed earlier, to much heat.

Mr. I Hate Sunshine and Heat.

She got her feet on the floor and carefully pushed to her feet. She still felt a little wobbly, although her headache was gone. The lack of headache was good. She needed to brush her teeth. She needed to wash her face and hair to.

She smelled like sweat and other things, which meant she needed a shower.

She made it past the bed before she faultered, feet tripping on themselves. She froze, somewhere between the floor and on her face and glanced up at Toushirou who had one eyebrow cocked in her direction. "All right"?

"Yes," she wasn't going to sound startled or if she did it was because she had fully been expecting to fall on her face. She glanced at the floor. She forgot, because he didn't use it often, that he could do that. The world tilted again and her weight settled onto the balls of her feet.

No pressure. No indication at all that he was exerting his rather different gift on her. She had the rather funny feeling that that was what a puppet felt like. Not that she would tell him that, ever.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." He shifted to his feet. "Let me give you a hand."

She nodded. "All right," he shifted an arm over her shoulders and she reminded herself not to blush or look at him when she settled her arm over his hips. "Thank you."

Toushirou tilted his head to glance down at her when the door imploded forwards, pushing the chairs with it. Three flashes of light slipped towards them and Momo rocked forward about the same time that the pressure from the explosion hit them. He hit the floor back first and managed to slow them down enough that Momo landed on top of him. He flinched at the breathy whimper and pulled the hand that held her to him up, eyes widening at the blood.

Something shifted and he grabbed the nearest chair, slamming it towards the movement. There was a scream and the light above him and Momo popped, little sparks falling from the ceiling. Another chair exploded and he grabbed the shards, wrapping them into the air around them as vicious little spears ready to move at a moments notice. He sat up carefully, pulling Momo with him. She gasped and hissed, but he had a firm grip on the knives in her back.

"Don't move," he said softly, watching the shadow pace in front of them. "I have them right now, but those knives will cut through you if you're not careful." He wasn't certain he could hold the knives, Momo, and keep the demon off of them. He glanced at the door between Momo's and Nanao's room and then back at the creature emerging from the shadows. It was ugly, the skin around its face was hanging in clumps and he could see the teeth and bones that made up his jawline.

"Won't." She whispered. "What is it?"She glanced at the corner of the room where the lights had blown and tried to make out the shape and then decided she didn't need to look at it. Bad enough that she could taste it in the back of her mouth.

"The demon." Since it was here and not wherever Shunsui and Nanao were, he was going to guess that they had not been able to find it. He hoped that they hadn't run into it anyway.

"Oh." Demon. He had said something about a demon last night, she forced herself to blink at his shoulder, trying to focus. She needed to get her breathing under control before she would be able to do anything to help him. "Can you stop it?"

It snarled and he grabbed the couch and flung it at him. The wall cracked under the impact and he winced a little. He was going to have to pay for that. The thing shoved the couch back at him and he caught it halfway across the room, sending two of his shards at it. It flickered briefly and the pieces of wood buried themselves into the wall behind it.

"Were going to find out." It snarled and he bared his teeth in its direction. Now that it was moving, slowly circuling them across the room, he could see that it was mostly bone. Bone and flesh. How lovely.

"Give me the girl," it had a gravely voice and Momo flinched against his flung the couch back at it in answer and this time the thing caught it with one hand, licking its is half formed lips. "She will taste delicious."

"God it stinks," Momo smell of it was coating the back of her throat and she couldn't quite breathe without feeling like she was going to throw up. She fought down the nausea that was crawling up her throat. If she threw up on Toushirou he would be distracted and if he was distracted, that thing would get them.

She did not want the thing to get them.

He didn't dare take his eyes off of where it was standing, dripping _something_ onto the floor, to see what she was making a fuss over. "What smells, Momo."

"That thing," she muttered, she tensed a little. "It smells like..."

The couch was flung across the room as well as part of the walls and both chairs. It was all he could do to catch the furniture when claws ripped through the couch and went for their faces. He lurched backwards, catching the couch and flinging it backwards. Momo screamed and the thing howled.

Shunsui flung open the door between them and Nanao's gun fired twice. It screamed again and Shunsui pulled something out of his pocket. Toushioru had the vaguest sense of power and then the room exploded. He leaned over Momo, shielding her with his body as best he could with the knives sticking out of her back and glanced up when Shunsui settled in front of them.

"Momo? Toushirou?"

Momo cracked an eye open, panting against his shoulder. "Next time," she told him wearily, "get here earlier."

Nanao glanced at the knives in her back and hissed and slowly eased Momo away from Toushirou and onto her stomach.

"If nothing major was hit, I can stitch these. Otherwise she needs to go straight to the doctor."

Shunsui glanced at the room. "We also need to do something about this room." He rubbed his cheek. "No doctor, Ise if you can get her to the bathroom, and those knives out. I can close those wounds enough that you can stitch them." He motioned towards the bathroom. "We are going to need to move camp and quickly, Toushirou give Nanao a hand."

"I can pull them out cleanly," he told Nanao glancing at her back. She was bleeding steadily and he was not going to look at the pools on the carpet. "There in pretty deep."

"Pull them out." He knelt beside them. "Nanao, get your kit out of your room" He nodded to  
Toushirou. "Deep breathes Momo." He told her. "We will move fast."

"All right." She nodded, breathing slowly.

Toushirou took a deep breathe and focused on the knives. He made sure he had a tight grip on the knives before yanking them out quickly. Momo made a noise somewhere between a whine and a grunt and he just managed to get them out before he flinched himself. Fresh blood pushed out of her shirt and Shunsui settled his hands just over her back.

Toushirou glanced at Momo's face and wasn't entirely certain that she was still conscious. That was probably for the best.

"Cut off her shirt when Shunsui is done," Nanao instructed, handing Toushirou a pair of scissors.

"I will stitch those."

Shunsui leaned back, eyes closing for a moment. "That is all I can do. She shouldn't bleed out now."

Toushirou leaned forward and eased the scissors along her back while Nanao pulled out a needle and thread. "We are going to need to move."

"I will take care of it," Shunsui said. "You two get Momo taken care of."

Nanao wiped at her back with a disinfectant. "How are you going to explain this?"

Shunsui quirked a smile in her direction. "Creatively."

"How did you know that it was here?" Toushirou leaned back against the wall so that Nanao could work on Momo's back without him being in the way.

Shunsui glanced at her back. "Nanao was able to get a read on what it was doing next once it made up its mind on what it was going to do. We came here as fast as we could." He glanced at the empty room. "As for how I got rid of it... well that was one of Jyuushirou's tricks."

A standing miracle, if he did say so himself.

Nanao stared at the wall, exhaustion creeping up on her. She reached up and brushed her hair out of her face and glanced over at Shunsui. He had hogged the shower, but she was willing to let him have first crack at getting clean since he was covered in Momo's blood. She glanced down at her hands, she had scrubbed the blood out from under her fingernails so she could wait a few minutes.

Toushirou had stopped by earlier and let them know that Momo had briefly woken up and managed to get a few swallows of broth down before she had collapsed again. She was relieved that she had woken up so quickly, the last time Shunsui had healed someone they had slept for a week before creeping out of the coma he had stuck them into.

"That went well," Shunsui said, dropping onto the couch beside her.

"If by well," she rolled her neck in his direction and blinked at him. "You mean, we all survived, then yes. It went well." He had managed to somehow sweet talk to the manager at their previous hotel into believing that some muggers had followed them into the hotel and attacked them.

Apparently they had destroyed the furniture with some sort of ax, hammer, combination thing that had the manager pale with worry and apologiese. Then he had convinced the new hotel to give them two rooms for the next few nights _and_ gotten room service to deliver food two hours before they were scheduled to open for had cheated.

"Demons," he said, "are rather troublesome."

"Was it even a demon?"

"I don't know." He shrugged, eyes closing. "Shadow something, twisted by all the magic and the hatred it kept inside. Folk lore would have called it a demon and I am inclined to agree with them." He tugged her wrist across his body, pulling her against his side. "Momo did well."

She snorted. "She tracked it well. The after wards could use a little work."

"Yes," he agreed. "Taking three knives to the back was a little extreme." He opened his yes and shifted to glance at her. "You're not mad."

She sighed, leaning back so that her neck rested against the back of the couch. "No," she

admitted. "I am not mad. I haven't been for a while." She could feel the weight of stare. Nanao sighed and shifted her head to glance at him.

He brushed his knuckles against her cheek. "Making me work for it?"

She snorted. "You were an idiot."

"Yes." He agreed. "I was, but I will be an idiot again Nanao."

She glanced over at him. "I will get mad at you," she said.

"I will always be over protective," he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "It is how I operate."

She shot him a droll look. "I will yell at you." She wouldn't let him run her life the way he did everyone else who worked for him.

"I would expect nothing less," he agreed, grasping her wrist and tugging her against him so that he could bury his nose in her hair. "You wouldn't be my Nanao if you didn't argue with me."

"Keep you in line is more like it," she muttered, relaxing against his side.

"Someone needs to," he leaned back and shot her a shrewd look. "Do you think our little Momo can handle Toushirou?"

"Toushirou might be a good fit for her." She settled her head against his shoulder, fingers curling around his. His clothes were still bloody, although the jacket he was wearing did a good job hiding the worst of it. "Although, I think the question is if can he handle her."

"Well, he ducks well," he tugged on a strand of hair. "Certainly, having someone who can duck and throw knives at the same time is beneficial when hunting things that go bump in the night."

Nanao nodded and sighed. "That still didn't go as planned." Perhaps they could convince Toushirou to give Momo a little more hand to hand training or at least work on her reflexes. He could throw straws at her or something, anything was better than her current abilities.

"It never does." He agreed, which was probably why he didn't plan to many things. General outlines were good, but if you planned to often you ended up disappointing someone or yourself. He glanced at the top of Nanao's head. Of course, she was an avid planner and would most likely make him write lists or worse get a dayplanner.

"Normally we do better than that," she turned her head to stare at his jaw line. "For instance, Momo doesn't normally end up with knives in her back the same day she has seizures."

Shunsui winced a little. "Well, yes."

"I think they are both going to have nightmares for a while," she admitted. "He could have stopped those knives, possibly. She should have ducked. I am going to have nightmares to I imagine. We could have gotten here earlier or not left them alone at all."

"Probably," he agreed. "We will work on her ducking skills." Shunsui hesitated. "He likes her."

Nanao paused. "Like like?" She glanced in his direction. Things had been awkward between the two of them, but she hadn't quite seen anything that indicated interest, unless their little spats were some sort of flirting. She thought about that for a moment and blinked at him. Toushirou had the emotional maturity of a twelve-year old sometimes. He would flirt by picking at her.

Shunsui turned and quirked a brow in her direction. "You know I don't peak."

She scowled at him. "Yes you do, all the time." He shifted his head his head and rested his lips against her brow for a moment.

"I do not."

"All the time." She retorted, shifting her head to tuck under his chin. "In fact your cheating right now." She told had known she wasn't angry with him. Since she hadn't told him and had kept her hands to herself, he had to have looked.

"I could," he agreed, "but I already know what you're thinking." He smiled down at her, watching for her reaction. She was expressive, his Nanao. He liked that about her.

She rolled her eyes up at him, one eye-brow quirking upwards. "Come again?" Cheating again.

He shifted them down the couch until he had her pressed into the back of the couch. "You are thinking how incredibly good looking I am," he smiled at her. "And how glad you are that Momo requires Toushirou's complete attention so that I can ravish you."

"Ravish? _Ravish_?" Both brows shot up. "Have you been reading romance novels again?" She was going to have words with Jyuushirou about cutting him off from those things. The traitor.

He pouted. "I could."

"With your teeth I take it?" She wasn't certain if she was amused, annoyed, or turned on by the idea.

"If you like," he waggled his brows in her direction and she smothered a giggle. It would only encourage him. She was not going to encourage this. Ravish? How did he come up with these things?

"And what if I have dibbs on the shower and don't particularly care to be ravished?"

"I am an accomplished backwasher." He shot her a hurt look before deepening his voice suggestively. "As you should know."

Nanao patted his shoulder awkwardly. "Of course." He was... being ridiculous and she was exhausted. She had the urge to just relax into the couch and let the warmth of his body lull her to sleep, suggestive whispers or not. It had been a particularly long day and she never liked the end of the hunt. Too much danger and to many people had the potential to get hurt. She closed her eyes for a moment before blinking at him when he kissed her nose.

"You can shower," he told her softly, eyes dark and she shivered. "Now or later." He paused. "Or both."

She laughed, shifting her hand over to push into his hair. "So now I have options." His hair was tangled from all the running they had done earlier, so it was a bit of a challenge to push her fingers through his curls.

"You can have whatever you want so long as you keep that up."

Her lips twitched. "How about I shower and you go check on Momo and Toushirou."

His eyes opened and he huffed. "What if the kid is getting some? I can't interrupt that."

"Momo had three knives shoved into her back; I doubt she is going to feel like giving him any." She stared at him suspiciously. Momo was not the sort to just... put out, so if he was making cracks about it then something had happened and he had peeked.

"There are ways."

Nanao stared at him. "Go check on them." It would serve him right if Toushirou threw something at him for interupting a moment between them. He probably safe however, since she doubted that Momo would be conscious long enough to do anything. Even if she wanted to.

He sighed dramatically and sat up, pulling her with him. "Will you warm up the bed while you wait for my return."

"I am locking the door and soaking in the tub," she reminded him, pushing at his chest until he got off the couch and headed for their room. "Warm the bed yourself.

He glanced at her over his shoulder, lips twisting into a pout. "So cruel, my Nanao is."

Throwing the pillow out him was most likely a little juvenile, but it made her feel better.


End file.
